Fantasy Cycling Teams
- 2005

Last modified:
Sunday, 14 August, 2016

As has become our custom, Lisa & I
will be adding to our interest in this year's professional cycling season
by following the fortunes of our own fantasy cycling teams. We've been doing
this since 1997. We
select our teams on the basis of each rider "costing" his total UCI ranking
points earned last season divided by ten and rounded to the nearest five,
with
a
minimum cost of twenty points and a maximum of 200. We allow each team
550 points
on this basis, with nine riders to be selected. No more than two riders
in each team can be selected from the same real life trade team. Throughout
the season we score our riders performances in all the major
races according to the points system
adapted from one used by Roger
Hughes in his Fantasy
Cycling League. The tables below summarise
the fortunes of our teams throughout the season.

For this
season's line-up Lisa has had a sweeping clear-out of her Ready
Steady Riders in spite of the dominating success of last
year's line-up.
Surprisingly, out goes Jan Ullrich while Joseba Beloki is retained. Robbie
McEwan, of course, also keeps his place but everyone else is new. The "new
Cipollini", Alessandro Petacchi is the biggest new signing but Roger Hammond
and Bradley McGee could bring plenty of success. Oscar Sevilla and Paolo
Savoldelli may be past their peak but could be good value for money and
the team is rounded out with Filippo Simeoni and Sébastien Hinault.

Steve's Nightowlers by contrast look a very
familiar bunch spearheaded by
Erik Zabel and Ivan Basso who were last year's only success stories. Steve
brings in Alexandre Vinokourov in hopes he'll prove to be a Grand Tour contender.
The ever-present Mario Cipollini returns for what must surely be his last
season,
and the remainder
of the line-up of cheaper riders remains unchanged. To field
a team almost identical to the outfit that performed so poorly last season
must be something of a triumph of hope over expectation.

The predicted
lack of firepower in Steve's Nightowlers team was
borne out by the results of Period One. Cipo got second place
on a stage of Tirreno-Adriatico and Zabel did the same in the Critérium
International in
which Basso took fourth overall. In contrast, Lisa's Ready
Steady Riders got
off to a fine start as Petacchi, beginning as he no doubt means to continue,
claimed three stage wins and second overall in Tirreno-Adriatico (in which
McEwan took second on one stage) followed by victory in Milano-San Remo.

Thanks to Zabel,
fourth in the Ronde van Vlaanderen, and Vinokourov, winner of Liège-Bastogne-Liège,
Steve's Nightowlers had reasonable success in Period
Two. On the other hand, Lisa's Ready Steady Riders failed to score
even a single point and are actually one point behind as the teams head towards
the Giro next month.

Several of
Lisa's Ready
Steady Riders
made minor showings in Switzerland (Tour de Romandie) and Spain
(Volta Ciclista a Catalunya) while Zabel (Rund um den Henniger Turm)
and Vinokourov (Bayern-Rundfahrt) scored for Steve's Nightowlers in
Germany. But for most of Period Three all eyes were on Italy,
and the most exciting Giro for many years. While Petacchi, McEwan and Zabel
contested the sprints, Basso and Savoldeli were our representatives for the
overall. After a fine start, illness wrecked Basso's race but Savoldelli
excelled throughout and provided Lisa with the first
ever Grand
Tour
victory for either of our teams!

Period
Four was a somewhat nervous time ahead of Le Tour.
In one major warm-up race, the Tour de Suise, McEwan and
McGee took a stage each and the latter eighth overall for Lisa's Ready
Steady Riders
while in the other, the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré,
Vinokourov took a stage and fifth overall for Steve's Nightowlers.
In their respective National Championships, on the last weekend of the
period, Nightowlers Vinokourov, Scanlon and Zabel placed first, second and
third.

As ever, Period
Five was coterminous with the Tour de France. Lisa's Ready
Steady Riders had a decent tour with contributions from all six of
her riders who took the start, headed by three stage wins and third
in the points competition for McEwan plus a stage win from Giro winner
Savoldeli. By contrast, Steve's Nightowlers fielded just three riders
of whom only two scored signicantly but, given that those two were
Basso (second overall) and Vinokourov (fifth overall plus a stage win
and placings in the points and king of the mountains competitions),
this was enough to net the team a haul second only to their performance
in the 1999 tour when Zülle was second, Zabel took green and Cipollini
won four stages in a row.

Lisa's Ready
Steady Riders took a fifteen-point lead into Period
Six but, with only Hammond's second place on a stage
of the Tour of Germany to their credit, surrendered the lead to Steve's
Nightowlers, thanks to the efforts of
Basso in the Tour of Denmark (he won four stages and took the
overall victory).

Lisa's Ready
Steady Riders bounced back with a vengeance in Period
Seven and have already exceeded the previous record season total
which they set last year. Petacchi warmed up nicely
for the World Championships by taking five stage victories
and
the points
jersey
in the
Vuelta a España,
assisted by McGee and (seventh overall) Sevilla, while McEwan won both
Paris-Bruxelles and the GP des Fourmies. Zabel gamely stuck to Petacchi's
coat-tails for Steve's Nightowlers in the Vuelta,
taking four second places on stages and fifth in the points competition,
but, with the opposition in such strong form, the team look set to end
the season on the highest losing total to date.

As predicted,
Steve's Nightowlers ended the season on the highest
losing total seen to date. Zabel's win in Paris-Tours and placings for
Vinokourov and Wiggins
in the Worlds Time Trial gave the team a reasonable score in the concluding
Period Eight but, even with
only McEwan's fourth place in Paris-Tours to show for the final period,
Lisa's Ready Steady Riders were not to be overhauled.

Looking back
over the season as a whole, it was a high-scoring, ding-dong
battle. Lisa's Ready Steady Riders were outscored in
five of the eight periods but demonstrated a strength in depth which
was the vital differentiator overall. Pettachi, McEwan
and Savoldeli
may have been the big hitters (and especially in their spectacular Giro)
but it was the support from McGee and Sevilla that led them past Steve's
higher-scoring trio of Basso, Zabel and Vinokourov who had almost no
back-up. The addition of Vinokourov to the line-up of Steve's Nightowlers was a life-saver for the team that did so badly last
year.

For the first
time ever, Mario Cipollini's name won't appear on the roster of Steve's Nightowlersnext
year. Zabel's career may be winding
down but the chances are he'll feature in the line-up again, alongside
Basso and Vinokourov. Wiggins looks set to be retained but Steve needs
to find one more significant contibutor to give his team the depth it
lacked this year.

Lisa's propensity for wholesale changes from season to season makes the shape
of next year's Ready Steady Riders harder to foresee. Surely, however,
Pettachni, McEwan and Savoldeli will be back as Lisa goes for an unprecedented third victory.